Metal Review: Scanner – The Judgement (2015)

German power metal band Scanner are back with their sixth studio album, The Judgement, which follows a huge layoff from the band, so it is nice to hear their brand of metal back with the fans. The band plays a standard style of classic/power metal that never gets old. It is hard to say anything bad about a band like this, but at the end of the day, there are a bunch of bands doing it better than them. That is not intended to be a knock on the band, but they are not reinventing the wheel with their sound.

“F.T.B.” is the band’s middle finger to the world talking about “the Bastards.” You can imagine what the “F” stands for. The lyrics are amateurish, but the guitar riffs and vocal melody make the song a good listen. Some of the riffs include some wicked artificial harmonics, of which I am a sucker for.

Songs like “Warlord” see the band channel their inner Judas Priest with the strong riffs and vocal stylings similar to Rob Halford. They do some things to put their spin on the song as well, but those elements are typically the weaker parts of the song.

“Utopia” has some fun little guitar licks that make for a decent main riff and shows some of the strongest vocals on the album.